I'm tired of reading about racist comments, racism, this, that, and the other,so I'm gonna take five minutes really quick and give my own little spiel about it. There is no biological facotr that contributes to race. Race is simply a pre-concieved notion that is made up by the uneducated. It was probably contrived for progandal purposes. Race does not exist. The only way people contrive races is by cultural aspects. The color of someone's skin is a biological adaptation, but has nothing to do with their race. In all actuality, a common pengiun varies two times more from penguin to penguin than a human does, black or white. A common fruit flie varies ten times more than a human. If you took the DNA of every clutch poster on here, you would probably find more direct matches between an Asian and a Black poster than between two black, two whites, or two Asians. I could go on and on about this, but I have to be somewhere...I'm just tired of reading about it. I just wanted to throw that out there for you to think about next time the race card comes up. (P.S. I don't even know if this makes sense, I just wrote it in a hurry.....sorry if it doesn't)
All of what you wrote may be true but sometimes what is perceived is more important than what is, at least to the untrained mind.
A person's skin color has absolutely nothing to do with what that person has on the inside. If you have the ability to see a person for what they are, i.e. what's on the inside, then their race is a moot point. More people in this country need to get past skin color. It means absolutely nothing, other than their pigment. Get over it.
I'm not really sure what your point is considering that almost everybody except for the likes of David Duke agrees on the premise. That doesn't change the fact that race relations still leave something to be desired and racism in subtle forms is still abundant. Perhaps I misunderstood you. Are you saying we should be oblivious to these issues and that they don't exist because we are all the same? I don't know if that's what you meant, but the wording of your post made it seem that way. "Race card" has a derogatory connotation that is a way of dismissing or undermining any issue that is brought up. I don't know if that's what you meant, but the diction in your post seems to be dismissing race issues as use of "the race card." That you went on to say that you're "tired of reading about it" leads me to believe that you feel these problems don't exist or shouldn't be addressed.
I don't intend to destroy the warm fuzzy love in the room, but as a caviat it should be noted that there are some specific genetic factors that are tied into race. Lactose Intollerance is present in 5% of adult Northern Europeans, vs. 98% of adult SE Asians. An excessive percentage of SE Asians also suffer from a problem metabolising alcohol relative to other racial backgrounds. This is known as the low-activity aldehyde dehydrogenase Asian phenotype. The breakdown of alcohol isn't taken through it's full metabolic pathway and so "gets stuck" at an intermediary resulting in excessive flushing. Hypertension and hypertension related issues are more prevelant in african americans, and while this may be environmental, negative reactions to ACE inhibitors characterised by swelling in the tongue and mouth are significantly more common in African American males. So much so that the drug Benicar which is used as an alternative treatment has been studied almost exclusively in African-Americans. The most well known racial characteristic is probably sickle cell anemia which affects African Americans more than others. That's just off the top of my head. The point is that to deny that there are any differences at all is just as ideologically driven a position as those who claim that there are "superior genetic heritages", or who use environmentally or culturally driven causes as "genetic proof", ala The Bell Curve. Mitochondrial DNA, particularly, is handed down unchanged from your mother and is a wonderfuly stable way to track an individual's genetic heritage. Even though i do undertstand where you are comming from in making your statement, the truth should never be altered to fit desired behaviors for any reason whatsoever.
Europeans have been ingesting milk for hundreds of years and have become one with the milk. SE Asians (and many in Africa) still don't drink it so they have never adjusted. Humans were not made to drink another animals milk and we are the only animals to do so. If you went off of it for a long time and then drank a glass you would react (not be lactose intolerant, but your body would have a little trouble with it). There are a lot of those kinds of differences (certain Asians also have really low rates of cancer that is also based on diet, etc). Not arguing here, just pointed out a different intepretation of the differences.
First off, current ideas on race do appear to be social constructs. But...there might not be one easy classification of race (Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negriod), but there are at least 25 identafiable populations of human beings. Which is why Swedes can train more power lifters and Kenyans more long distance runners. It'll take several genertions of worldwide interbreeding before those distinctions blend into one general human race.
These things mostly have to do with geographical adaptations. In African Americans (as well as Mediterranian populations), sickle cell anemia is more prevalent because it is controlled by the same allelle that dictates the ability to contract malaria. Over time, they have selected againt being able to come up with malaria, so they have almost no defense against the sickle cell anemia. As far as the lactose intolerance goes, I forget the exact reasoning for the adaptation, but it's something along the lines of this: Vitamin D is produced from sunshine, among other things. In those that live in colder climates (Northern Europeans), the people had a hard time producing the vitamin during the winter. Because of this, there was a high frequency of Rickets. This killed many infants/mothers. In order to adapt to this, these Europeans were selected for lactose tolerance. This gave them the ability to obtain vitamin D year-round, which lead to less Rickets, which led to higher infant survival rates. Lactose tolerance was also selected for in several cattle herding tribes of Africa, because it's dry there, and the cow's milk is easier in some places to obtain than water.
As far as my post goes, I'm not sure of the exact purpose behind it. I just think that A LOT of people are oblivious to this fact. I think that if more people were educated on these kind of things, that they would possibly see life in a different way.
Everyone agrees that race isn't real and that it was constructed to create hierarchies of society and to justify some rather questionable policy. But don't pretend that race doesn't matter or that our policy should never acknowledge race because its something we have to live with. It'll be many many years before we can adopt a colorblind approach to policy.
Not to be obtuse, but you do recognise that these are genetic responses to environmental pressures? We aren't talking about Lysenkoism? I'm not trying to be an ass, but I read your statement; And was fairly sure that I was providing genetic (and therefore biological) evidence that disproved your statement. Again I'm not trying to be annoying or obtuse. I just think that the existance of biological factors that are very strongly tied to race is pretty much beyond dispute. Now if you are talking about biological factors that are quantitatively measurable in terms of strength or athletic development or cognative development, or any other broad categorical issues, I have no problem with that. But there are genetic (biological) differences between races as well as within subgroups within races. Go to http://www.familytreedna.com/ They are able to determine ancestry by determining the values of a series of genetic markers.
whatever. i still think racist jokes are funny. people just take things too seriously....... or my friends and i have a sick sense of humor (we do).
If you're white, then you obviously have no good sense of humor. Too many years of Friends and the low ratings of Arrested Development proves it.
Races are like the full spectrum of visible light. But where does red end and orange begin? Sure it's easy to tell apart red and blue, but what the **** is indigo?
While this may be the case the controversy regarding race is in issues like intelligence. Overall I don't think there is any biological proof that one race is smarter than the other.
